Because I Could Not Stop For Death
by Toaofwriting
Summary: Anakin is in for a surprise or two when he dies. Set at the very end of RotJ and based on Emily Dickinson's poem of the same name.


SourceURL:file:/localhost/Volumes/NO%

_Because I could not stop for Death – _

_He kindly stopped for me – _

_The Carriage held but just Ourselves – _

_And Immortality._

Anakin gasped and opened his eyes. That was a surprise. He hadn't expected to be able to do that, or indeed anything, ever again. In fairness, he hadn't give much thought to what would come after death, or indeed anything about his own death at all. He'd always been too busy blowing things and people up for that.

Looking around, he noticed that he was no longer lying on the floor of the Death Star. Instead, he was sitting in the copilot's seat of an airspeeder. His next surprise was to see non other than Obi-Wan Kenobi sitting next to him, wearing that gently amused smile that was so familiar.

"Master?" he asked.

"Hello, Anakin," said his former Master. "About time you showed up."

"But…what…" Anakin stammered, at a loss for words. Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow in another familiar expression.

"Eloquent as ever, I see," he replied.

"But…you're dead."

"Yes, I am. It's a rather unfortunate effect of being sliced in half by a lightsaber, I'm afraid," came the dryly sarcastic response. Anakin dropped his head.

"Master, I'm-I'm so sorry. I…"

Words failed him, and tears sprang to his eyes. Obi-Wan patted him on the shoulder.

"You are forgiven, my friend. Always and completely forgiven."

"I don't deserve it," Anakin said.

"Of course not. But I forgive you anyway."

They shared a smile, and Obi-Wan started up the speeder's engines.

"Wait a minute, I thought you hated flying," said Anakin. "And where are we, anyway?"

"Oh, I only minded flying when there was a significant chance of my crash-landing and dying in a painful way. Fortunately, however, that is no longer an issue."

Smiling again, he pulled back on the throttle, and the speeder took off.

_We slowly drove – He knew no haste_

_And I had put away_

_My labor and my leisure too,_

_For His Civility –_

They flew on without haste, without worry. The two of them bantered and joked as if it were old times, and they were still alive. Anakin had to admit that he had not felt so good in-well, ever, actually, now that he came to think of it. As a slave, he had always been subject to the whims and desires of someone else. As a Jedi, he had always had something to do, someone to save, some new thing to learn. When with Padme, he'd felt happy and complete, but always had had a slight sense of frustration and guiltiness weighing him down. And after he'd fallen to the Dark, he hadn't had a truly joyful moment at all.

"Where is Padme, anyway?" he asked.

"Oh, I believe she's on top of things. Same as usual," replied the Jedi Master, and they both grinned as they thought of his identical answer on Geonosis.

"Last I saw, she was playing sabaac with Qui-Gon and Bail," he added. Anakin whistled.

"That must be one heck of a match," he said.

_We passed the School, where Children strove_

_At Recess – in the Ring – _

_We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – _

_We passed the Setting Sun –_

"Prepare yourself," Obi-Wan added, as they drew closer to a dusty, sand-stained field.

"What's this?" Anakin asked, as voices began drifting towards them.

"Your life," replied the elder Jedi. As they drew closer, Anakin saw, as if through a heat haze, his mother holding a tiny baby boy.

"You were so cute when you were young," Obi-Wan commented. "What happened?"

Anakin glared at him as they passed Gardulla and Watto exchanging credits. They passed Anakin's childhood, and saw Qui-Gon and the events of the Naboo Invasion.

"It's strange, seeing you without a beard," Anakin commented wryly, and Obi-Wan ran a hand down his chin in his most dignified manner as they passed Anakin growing up as a Padawan. They were both silent as they passed the Clone Wars, his Knighting, and the fall to the Dark. Anakin bowed his head sadly, as they flew on for two decades. They watched Luke walk into Cloud City to face Vader.

"Brave, handsome, intelligent, reckless, and good with a 'saber. I wonder who that reminds me of?" Anakin smirked.

"Well, I would say you, but then I heard the words "handsome" and "intelligent," which definitely rules you out," smirked Obi-Wan. Anakin punched his shoulder.

"I wouldn't be so ugly if you hadn't thrown me into a lava river," he said.

"It's hardly my fault if you never learned to look before you leap," replied the other.

"Says Master Fell-Into-A-Gundark-Nest."

"I didn't fall, I jumped. And didn't reach the other side."

"Well, maybe you should have _looked before you leapt_," chortled Anakin. Obi-Wan glared at him balefully.

"It seems that you did learn your lesson eventually," he said, nodding to where Vader had thrown his saber to take down the catwalks Luke was standing on instead of leaping in again.

_Or rather – He passed us – _

_The Dews drew quivering and chill – _

_For only Gossamer, my Gown – _

_My Tippet – only Tulle –_

Anakin looked down at himself, and noted, to his surprise, that his dark, heavy armor had faded away, leaving only light, comfortable Jedi robes. They weren't the dark robes he'd worn when he was younger, but rather, the standard ones that he'd never really felt like wearing. He had his utility belt, but none of his stuff was on it. Obi-Wan followed his gaze and said,

"Don't worry. You won't need any of that here."

_We paused before a House that seemed_

_A Swelling of the Ground – _

_The Roof was scarcely visible – _

_The Cornice – in the Ground –_

They went past a funeral pyre, still hidden on the other side of a veil. On top rested the armor of Darth Vader. It was indescribably weird for Anakin to see his own dead body. Luke walked up with a torch and touched it to the pyre.

"Come on," Obi-Wan said. He pulled the speeder over and parked it. On the side of the road was Yoda, leaning on his gimer stick.

"Young Skywalker," he said, nodding. "Awaiting you, we have been."

"I apologize for my lateness, Master," Anakin said, bowing.

"Some people never change," Obi-Wan commented. "Apparently even death isn't enough to make Anakin start being punctual."

"Come," Yoda replied, smiling a tiny bit. The three of them passed through the veil and greeted Luke before returning to their world.

"You trained him well," Anakin commented to Obi-Wan. "He's an amazing young man."

"Like father, like son," Obi-Wan replied, and they smiled at each other.

_Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet_

_Feels shorter than the Day_

_I first surmised the Horses' Heads _

_Were toward Eternity –_

And so, although they were not alive, it is fair to say that they existed more or less happily ever after.

FINIS

**Author's Notes: This story is roughly based on Emily Dickinson's poem "Though I Could Not Stop For Death." It's a beautiful poem, and as soon as we started studying it in English, I knew I had to write something about it. I think that the House in the second to last stanza is probably the speaker's grave. Since Anakin isn't buried, but rather cremated, I decided to put that in instead. There's an old belief that people are escorted to the afterlife by someone close to them in life. Since Obi-Wan was Anakin's mentor, as well as being his spiritual brother and father, I thought it would be appropriate for Obi-Wan to teach him this one last lesson. And I chose a speeder instead of a horse-drawn carriage because I think it would, like Platform 9 ¾ in Harry Potter, be different for different people-Anakin's used to a speeder, not a horse-drawn carriage, so that's what he gets.**


End file.
